[Clinical forms of respiration disorders in newborn infants]

Ventilatory disturbances are the most often cause of death in neonates. The study was carried out on 80 neonates, treated in the intensive care unit. In all during the first 48 hours the following symptoms occurred: tachypnoea (above 60 per minute), cyanosis, retraction of the intercostal muscles, expiratory disturbances. Diagnosis of clinical forms of ventilatory disturbances was made basing on Hjalmarson's criteria. The results of this study imply that the most often seen form of ventilatory disturbances in neonates in the hyaline membrane disease--found in 45% of the cases. The highest mortality (75%) was seen in the meconium aspiration syndrome.